This invention is in the field of waste treatment and solidification of solid and liquid waste for safe disposal into ordinary trash and landfills. Specifically, this invention is unique using granular or powdered forms of bentonite clay mixed with water, and is designed solely for the safe treatment of all pharmaceutical drugs that are disposed of due to expiration dates or lack of further need, whether they be in a pill, gel capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid form, by encapsulating them into a solid matrix and preventing them from eventually entering fresh water supplies.
This need exists due to the fact that many drugs today are disposed of into sanitary sewers, as the disposers wish to avoid any problems such as injury or death and the corresponding legal liability of the disposer, with use by unknown individuals, animals, or small children when pharmaceuticals are disposed of in normal trash receptacles. As such, these drugs once dissolved in the water supply from toilets or normal sewerage drains, can be untreatable at local municipal waste treatment plants or septic fields, and end up being discharged into fresh water surface lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, oceans, and underground aquifers where they can be recycled into drinking water systems and endanger the public over an extended period of time.
The prior state of the art has ignored this area of treatment, and has focused on general industrial and municipal waste from: general manufacturing and merchandising, defense manufacturing, ordinance, oil exploration, nuclear weapons and energy manufacturing, and general residential and commercial solid wastes. As such the direct application to the specific segment of pharmaceutical disposal has never been singled out for specific separate treatment in the prior years that this waste was in combined trash, and one can not assume such separation would occur to someone in the normal course of waste trade or it would have occurred by now. Likewise, pharmaceutical and drug disposal has been a normal part of operation for people who deal directly with pharmaceuticals, and in the course of their everyday work they would not have common knowledge of solidification agents for solid disposal, or likewise it would have been done by now. The unique application of solidifying agents being mixed specifically with pharmaceuticals and drugs for disposal into normal trash receptacles removes both the risk and liability of these products getting into others hands or into fresh water systems that provide drinking water.
In a large part, the current disposal practice part of pharmaceuticals and drugs by hospitals, doctors, dentists, treatment centers, and individuals, is mostly by disposal into sanitary sewer systems by disposers flushing them down toilets or sinks to avoid other individuals or animals from obtaining disposed pharmaceuticals and drugs and ingesting them, thereby exposing them to health risk or death, and the disposers to extreme legal liability, but by disposing into sewer systems they are presenting an unintended serious risk to the general public. Traces of disposed drugs have been showing up in waters of the Great Lakes, as an example. As stated above, This sanitary sewer disposal is the chosen method of disposal simply to eliminate the fear of other individuals, pets, or children discovering discarded pharmaceuticals in trash containers and consuming them. This patent application's unique method of treatment for pharmaceuticals singularly for disposal would eliminate such risks through the individual treatment and disposal so that they are rendered harmless to society in landfills and no longer at risk of entering fresh water resources.
This invention offers a definite improvement on current technology and practices offering a unique method of treating pharmaceutical and drug disposal and eliminating definite risks and legal liabilities. It is also an invention that one could not assume would occur in the course of daily work to someone in the field of waste solidification or in the medical or pharmaceutical fields as it has not occurred in the last 85 years these products have been available.
Current U.S. Patent Classifications. Known applicable Current U.S. Patent Classifications include, but may not be limited to, the following Classes and Brief Definitions:                106/607: Compositions: Coatings or Plastic        252/60; 252/63/; 252/72: Solidification, Vitrification, or Cementation of Compositions        588/251; 588/252: Hazardous or Toxic Waste Destruction or Containment        